Eliza
by Lost Robin
Summary: Eliza Tyler's been told her entire life that her mum died when she was three, but what if that isn't true? AU. Does involve Rose and 10, but mostly the Torchwood team. Follows the timeline of both shows, but tweaks certain things.
1. Prologue

Prologue

My story starts out like any other. Boy meets girl. Boy and girl fall in love. Boy and girl have a baby girl. Girl dies in an incident with Cybermen. Oh wait. That's not how most stories go. Granted, most people aren't the daughter of the Doctor and Rose Tyler.

My name is Elizabeth Cordelia Tyler, but no one calls me that except Uncle Jack and Dad when I'm in trouble. I prefer to be called Eliza. I live in the TARDIS with Dad and Uncle Jack, my godfather. Well, most of the time I live in the TARDIS. Once, when I was eleven, Dad decided I needed to live in Cardiff for a little while. At the end of the two weeks, the team at Torchwood Three was ready to give me back to Dad. That was the last time I had to live anywhere but the TARDIS. Which I am perfectly fine with.

Living in the TARDIS certainly isn't boring. We're always travelling somewhere new. Even when we're just in Cardiff so Uncle Jack can check on his team, we're doing something interesting. It keeps you on your toes. Never know where we're going to land or who we run into.

But there was one day that was weird. Not too long before my sixteenth birthday, everything changed. My entire world would turn upside down in a blink of an eye. And there was nothing I could do about it.


	2. Chapter 1

I walked down the sidewalk towards Roald Dahl Plass in Cardiff. Dad parked the TARDIS just next to the invisible lift to Torchwood Three. I'd been sent to collect a harmless Sycorax device for them. It was totally a ploy to get me out so they could prepare the final bits of my 'surprise' birthday party. The device was from Torchwood's archive. They forgot to take the tag off.

A woman appeared in front of me just as I passed the water tower. Not she came into my line of sight. One second she wasn't there, the next, she was. I pulled my katanas out, a fifteenth birthday present from Uncle Jack. I loved them dearly.

"Who are you?" I asked the woman, holding my katanas at the ready.

She looked at me for a moment, utterly confused. I could see why. We had the same blonde hair (mine a bit longer and wavier). We were around the same build (I was a little shorter). She didn't have freckles across the bridge of her nose and I had dark blue eyes instead of brown.

"Who are you?" I asked again.

She didn't answer. She looked at me like I didn't belong.

"Eliza?" she asked quietly.

"Who are you and why do you know my name?" I asked. I was starting to panic.

"You don't remember me?" she asked.

Major panic time. I dashed onto the invisible lift. She followed, easily hopping onto it. Really freaking out. As soon as it was in the floor of the Hub, I jumped off and ran into the conference room.

Uncle Jack looked up from the present he was wrapping. "Didn't expect you back so quickly, squirt," he commented.

"There's a strange woman who knows my name and she followed me down here," I said in one breath.

Immediately, the entire team stood up. Uncle Jack held a hand out to stop them from going anywhere.

"What did she look like?" he asked calmly.

"Like me, but older and brown eyes."

Uncle Jack looked...well, he looked nervous. Uncle Jack _never_ looked nervous. He was always ready for anything.

"Uncle Jack?" I asked. "Who is she?"

"Jack?" the woman called from the doorway.

Uncle Jack snapped his attention to her. The look on his face was unfamiliar, a mixture of sadness and maybe longing? Dunno what

her relationship with us was. She seemed to be important to Uncle Jack.

"Rose?" Uncle Jack almost whispered.

"It's me," she answered, wiping away tears. "I'm back."

In one swift move, Uncle Jack crossed the room and swept her into a hug. Was she one of his exes? That would explain how she knew me. But I didn't remember her.

Uncle Jack put her down and (not so) subtly wiped away tears. "We thought you were gone," he said.

"Dimension cannon," she said simply. She turned towards me. "I don't think you remember me. I was sucked into another universe when you were very little." She paused. "But I'm back now."

"Don't mean to be rude," I said. "But who are you?"

"I'm Rose Tyler."

"You can't be."

"Why not?" she asked gently.

"Because Rose Tyler died when I was three. There was a Cyberman invasion on Christmas and she died fighting them."

Rose turned to Uncle Jack. "Why does she think I'm dead?"

"We didn't know you weren't dead," he said quietly.

"And what about when the Earth was stolen?" she asked, growing more angry.

"Why don't we take this into my office?" He put a hand on each of our backs and pushed us out the door. He closed it with his foot.

"Why did you lie to me?" I asked, stopping as soon as the door was closed. "You knew she wasn't dead and you didn't tell me."

"We did it to protect you. We didn't want to get your hopes up."

"But clearly it wouldn't've been futile," I snarked. "She came back. And how were you going to explain it?" My hair started floating. Side of effect of being angry. Normally, I would try to control it, but at that point, I didn't care what my hair was doing. I wanted answers.

"Eliza, calm down."

"No." When I spoke again, I was yelling. "How could you lie to me?"

"Elizabeth Cordelia Tyler, do _not_ raise your voice at me. What we did was to protect you."

"But you didn't think before you did it! It was selfish!"

"Enough!" Uncle Jack roared. "Go to your room!" I didn't move. "Young lady, go to your room right now."

"Jack," Rose said quietly.

"Not now," he answered tersely.

"No, right now," she said a bit louder. "Eliza has every right to be mad at you. At both of you." She paused. "Where _is_ Doctor?"

"Out."

"Where?" She meant business.

Uncle Jack looked at me, then back to the older woman.

"He's getting one of her presents. He's just down the street." Uncle Jack checked the fob watch I got him for Christmas. "Doc should

be getting back...right now." As he said the last two words, the invisible lift started heading towards the ground. Dad was standing on it, holding a cardboard box.

"I'm back!" he called. "I couldn't find a necklace I liked, but there's an antique bookstore just down the street." He held up the box. "All her favourites." He looked down at the three of us for a minute. "Rose?"

Rose teared up again. "Yes, Doctor."

Dad put the books down before running and hugging her. Well, he ran towards her. My fist connected with his stomach before he could hug her.


	3. Chapter 2

Uncle Jack had me thrown over his shoulder before Dad knew what was going on. "Let's go have a little talk, shall we?" Rhetorical question. He carried me down to the cells, past Janet the Weevil's and into one of the empty ones near the wall.

"You want to take your anger out on someone, take it out on me," he said, not gently putting me down, "But don't take it out on him."

"Why not?" I practically spat out.

"Because he is your father and he deserves more respect than that."

"He's never given it to me."

Uncle Jack slapped me before I could block him. "Your father has done more for this universe than anyone else. Hell, he's even saved all of creation. What he did, he did for you."

I slapped him back so hard his head went to one side.

"If that's how we get your anger out, so be it," he said, moving his head back to the proper position. "I have no problem hitting a girl and I need some exercise."

I punched him, following it was a roundhouse kick. He blocked the kick and flipped me onto the floor. I rolled over and stood up to avoid being squished. He followed the attempted tackle with a kick to the back of my knees.I fell again and slammed my hand into the side of his knee.

At some point during the fight, I stopped thinking. Well, I thought. It was mostly 'Dodge that' or 'Hit there'. Things Uncle Jack taught me to think during a fight. It was the only way my arse wasn't going to get whupped.

"Enough!" someone yelled.

I looked up from the headlock I was holding Uncle Jack in. The source of the voice was Rose. She came into the cell followed by Owen. I released Uncle Jack. He rubbed his neck.

"That is enough fighting for today," Rose said. She was actually kinda scary when she was mad.

Owen picked me up, ignoring my protests. "Let's go calm you down," he said.

"I _am_ calm," I snapped at him.

He laughed. "Bollocks." He carried me into his autopsy bay and plonked me down on the cold, hard table. Hoped it was sanitized. "Show me your hands."

I held them out. They actually weren't bloody or _too_ bruised.

He let out a low whistle. "Most people don't get through a fight with Jack without losing consciousness, let alone barely bruised."

I shrugged. "More durable than most people."

"Much more." He continued his cursory examination. "Everything else seems to be fine. Just ice your knuckles and don't get any more fights for a while, okay?"

"Can't promise anything."

"Maybe you should."

"They lied to me for thirteen years. Did they tell you that?" Wait. He'd been at Torchwood for the Cybermen incident. He knew. He and Tosh knew. "You knew."

"It wasn't our idea to keep lying to you. We were opposed to it." He paused. "Well, Gwen wasn't." Not surprised. She treated me like I was a little kid. "The rest of us thought it was ridiculous. Being told your mum's dead when she's really in a different universe. Don't blame you for getting angry."

"I suppose Dad sent you to lecture me. Tell me not to take my anger out on people or blow up so quickly."

He sat next to me and handed me a bag of ice. "Then I'd be a hypocrite. And no, your dad didn't send me. Ianto and I flipped a coin."

I laughed quietly and pressed the ice to my left hand. "In true Torchwood fashion."

"Of course. How else do we resolve things?" He paused. "Besides, I wanted to make sure you didn't cut open your hand beating Jack's arse."

"So you fixed the coin toss."

"Well..." He trailed off. "There's nothing anyone can prove." He bumped my shoulder with his in a friendly way. Unlike Gwen, he didn't try _too_ hard to get me to like him. Granted, some days we were the same maturity level. And some days I acted older than he did. "So other than being lied to by pretty much everyone you care about, how're you doing?"

"I'm still mad."

"And you have every right to be." He paused. "I _am_ supposed to lecture you, but I really don't feel like it."

"What were you going to say?"

He shrugged. "Dunno. Something about..." He trailed off. "I honestly have no idea what I was going to say. Suppose I would've winged it."

"You would be a horrid dad."

He laughed. "Yeah. I would. My kids would be running around Cardiff, causing trouble and wreaking havoc and general chaos. At least they'd be handsome."

"Eh..."

"Low blow, Tyler."

"But what if it's true?" I switched the ice to my right hand.

"You're such a nice person," he deadpanned.

"I know." I bumped his shoulder with mine. "So what'd they get me for my birthday?"

"And why do you think I'd tell you?"

"The better question is if you know."

"And why wouldn't I?"

I shrugged. "Dunno, but if you do know what they got me, will you share?"

"I do know and I'm not going to tell you."

"Please?" I asked, pouting.

"I, unlike Gwen and Tosh, am immune to your pouting."

"Sure about that?"

"Yes and I know you're not supposed to hypnotize people." Damn. "You'll find out soon enough anyway. Your birthday _is_ tomorrow."

"But I want to know now."

"Good things come to those who wait." He hopped off the table. "Come on. Time for ice cream."

"Lemme get this straight. I'm in trouble for getting angry at Uncle Jack and Dad and you're taking me out for ice cream?"

"Don't listen to authority very well. Now. Do you want ice cream or not?"

I hopped off the table and tossed the bag of half-melted ice into the sink. "Let's go get ice cream."


	4. Chapter 3

The ice cream parlour was just down the street from the Hub, so we walked. There was no sign of the team, which worried me to no end. Maybe they were still in the conference room, wrapping presents.

We sat in the booth Uncle Jack permanently reserved. They brought us our usuals without us even having to ask. And it was automatically charged to the Torchwood credit card.

Owen dug into his banana split. He enjoyed these trips for ice cream as much or possibly more than I did. Best way to get him to do something was to bribe him with food. He hid food in the autopsy bay and his lab. Way too easy to find it.

I ate my root beer float slowly. I was waiting for Uncle Jack to storm in and rip me a new one.

"Expecting someone?" Owen asked. "He's not going to yell at you."

"How'd you know what I'm thinking?"

"Typical Eliza behavior. You're not in trouble, darling. He wants you to forgive him."

"What do you mean 'forgive him'?"

"Jack and Doctor realize how stupid they've been."

"They sent you to negotiate peace."

"It was down to me or Ianto. I won them over with my charm."

I laughed, almost snorting root beer out my nose. "I'm sure that's what it was."

"I can be charming." Sure. And Dad's sonic worked on wood. "Look, they've realized how stupid they've been. I got sent because you would listen to what I have to say."

"So why should I listen to you plead their case?"

"Just listen to me, then judge them however you like."

I sighed. "Fine."

"When your mum was sucked into the other universe, your dad was devastated and confused. He didn't quite know what to do with a two and a half year old girl who looked more and more like her mum every day. So he called his friend, who lived in Cardiff and ran this little place called Torchwood Three." Owen paused to eat more of his sundae.

"Torchwood Three, at the time, had three members who Jack trusted completely. His second-in-command was a rather independent-minded woman who specialized in weapons." Suzie. I barely remembered her. "A bloody brilliant tech specialist was the next senior." Tosh. "And the newest member was a doctor." And of course, Owen. "He'd been there around a year and a half, maybe? Long enough to prove his worth to Jack.

"Jack told your dad he could spend as much time as he wanted in Torchwood. You two were just fine for about a month. But then you kept asking 'Where's Mummy?'. And they couldn't keep lying to their precious little girl."

Oh God. My dad Retconned me. No, Uncle Jack must've set it up.

Owen sighed. "So Jack decided that the best option would be to Retcon all your memories of her. Play it off as childhood amnesia. The entire team was against it." He looked away when he said the last sentence.

"Why'd you just lie to me?" I asked quietly.

He pulled at his collar. A sign of nervousness in Owen.

"Owen," I almost whispered, "I've had enough of people I lov-care about lying to me. Tell me the truth."

"You were upset and it was the only way to help you. Tosh and I were against it."

"And Suzie?"

"She thought it was a good idea. Granted, she had issues with her parents." He took a deep breath. "Jack let it drop for a couple weeks, then he asked me to get him a dose of Retcon. Said it was for a little alien. Had I been paying closer attention, I would've realized the dose was for you.

"When I figured it out, I ripped Jack a new one. He asked me whether I wanted you to be happy and grow up normally or if I wanted you to suffer."

"That explains all the physicals." One every two months like clockwork.

"We had issues with Retcon being used to condition went insane." Oh. "Didn't want to take any chances. You grew up normally."

I scoffed.

"Normally for a half Time Lord. Then a couple years ago when there was that issue with the Daleks."

I nodded. I'd stayed with Uncle Jack's daughter. Due to our time travel, only five or so years passed, but I was thirteen.

"Rose came back and Jack and Doctor faced another moral dilemma. Tell you the truth or keep lying. They didn't feel that they were

ready fro how you'd react."

"Like this."

"Yeah." He paused. "They were going to break it to you slowly, starting in a couple of weeks. This just expedited it."

"Sad part is that I actually believe that they would lie to me for most of my life," I said glumly.

"They didn't do it maliciously. It's like when Ianto told you Santa was part of Torchwood."

"Except a thousand times worse."

"I didn't say exactly like," he countered. "I know what they did was wrong, but they did it for the right reasons."

I sighed and stirred my mostly melted float. "I know. I want to forgive them, but they lied to me for thirteen years."

"Yeah, but would you-"

"Don't try to guilt me," I said, interrupting him. "I know what the possibilities were. I just need some time."

"I'm not supposed to let you out of my sight."

"Too bad. I'm going for a run." I got up.

His hand was wrapped around my wrist before I could block him. "No, you're not."

"You said that you aren't supposed to let me out of your sight. I can go for a run without leaving your sight."

"I am _not_ going running with you."

"I'm going running. Either you come along or you can explain to Uncle Jack how you lost me."

"Little minx." He looked me over. "Don't you need to change first?"

Twenty minutes later, we were on the quay, stretching. Well, I was stretching. Owen was whining.

"I don't get why I have to do this," he whined.

"If you hadn't volunteered to be my shadow, then you wouldn't be here," I answered, getting up. "Come on. Time to run."

"I _hate_ running."

"Too bad, Harper." I started jogging away from the Millennium Centre.

He had to sprint to catch up."Will you slow down?"

"No," I yelled over my shoulder. "Catch up, Harper. Our run's just begun."

I liked running. It cleared my mind and helped me think through things. Only problem was it took a _lot_ of running to clear my mind. More than most humans could run. Especially Owen. We only ran ten kilometres. Didn't want to explain to Uncle Jack that Owen keeled over.

The Hub was still empty when we got back. Except for the lights in the conference room, it was dark. Wait. Lights in the conference room? I dashed up the stairs.

"How do you still have energy?" Owen panted while he sat down on the couch.

The three people I really did _not_ want to see were there. Dad, Uncle Jack, and...I guess I called her Mum. They were not happy. They weren't mad; they just seemed a bit sad.

I knocked on the open door. Dad looked up and motioned for me to come in. I screwed my courage to the sticking place and walked

in.

The other two didn't look up. They kept murmuring. I sat next to Dad, across from Mum. Dad grabbed my hand and squeezed it reassuringly.

Uncle Jack looked up and saw me. Was that a tear falling down his cheek? Why was he crying?

"Hey, kiddo," he said, the ever constant bravado gone from his voice.

"Hi," I muttered, looking down at the table.

"I'm sorry I got mad at you. I lost my temper and I shouldn't've." He reached across the table and put a finger under my chin, lifting it so our eyes met. "What we did was wrong. No one can deny that. The lying and the Retcon were the wrong way to go about it."

"It wasn't completely his fault," Dad chimed in. "We shouldn't have done what we did. I am so, so sorry."

"I forgive both of you," I said quietly. There wasn't a dry eye in the room.


	5. Chapter 4

When we finally left the conference room, I heard someone snoring. Owen was fast asleep on the couch. He must've fallen asleep from all the running we did. I grabbed the blanket Ianto kept on the back of the couch and draped it over him. He snuffled a little and rolled over. He looked younger when he was asleep.

"Hey, squirt," Uncle Jack called from near the cog door, "Ready to go?"

Owen sat up, rubbing his eyes. "Morning to you too, Harkness," he grumbled.

"It's actually six in the evening," I said.

"Stay for dinner," Uncle Jack called down. "I'm cooking." Uncle Jack was _fantastic_ at cooking.

"Sure. Have nothing else to do and if you're cooking, it'll be decent." He looked down at the blanket draped over him. "Thanks."

I blushed slightly and muttered, "No problem".

During dinner, Uncle Jack opened a bottle of wine. Everyone but me got a glass. I got root beer. Not that I was complaining too much. Normally, I had to drink milk at dinner.

"So," Mum said, "Anything big coming up?"

"Eliza's birthday is tomorrow," Owen said, taking a sip of his wine. I shot him a death glare.

Mum turned to me. "Your birthday is tomorrow?"

I nodded. "Sixteen years old."

Mum looked at Dad while she said "Wow. Sixteen years old."

After dinner, Uncle Jack and I did the dishes. Owen offered to help, so Uncle Jack abandoned me to go talk to Mum and Dad.

"So," Owen said, 'What do you think they're talking about?"

I shrugged. "Dunno. And we can't find out."

"Why not?"

"The room they went into has paneling that shields it from telepaths." Uncle Jack's study. Never even been in that room.

"Ah." We finished. Owen hung the towel back up. "What do we do now?"

"Whatever you want." I checked the clock. "It's only seven."

"I have no idea what to do." He paused. "Have any gaming systems?"

"The Playstations need to be fixed, but we could battle." I pulled my DS out of my pocket.

"I like the way you think." He pulled his out.

Two hours later, Mum came into my room. To an outsider, it must've been a strange sight. I was sitting on my loft bed, feet dangling

off the edge. Owen had draped himself across the couch. Both of us had intense looks on our faces and occasionally exchanged witty banter.

Mum knocked on the door. "Am I interrupting something?" she asked.

"Nope," I said, hopping off my bed. "What's up?"

"Just wanted to see what you're doing." She turned to Owen. "And Jack said there's a guest room waiting for you."

Owen got up. "Thanks." To me, he said "We'll finish this later."

"Usual bet stands?" I asked.

"Of course. Night."

Mum looked at me with a sort of bemused look on her face.

"So, your birthday," she said, sitting on the couch. "Anything big planned?"

I shrugged. "Rift permitting, we might have a party. Dunno."

"Anything you three do together?"

"Breakfast and dinner. Lunch if they're not busy."

"Maybe it'll be different," she said cryptically. And Dad's sonic worked on wood. She got up. "Night."


End file.
